Mayne Island is an egg-producing paradise. Do Mayne hens outnumber Mayne humans? Has anyone taken a census? Are we having a hen population explosion?
This month, egg producers will tell you, hens can barely keep up with the demand. Canadians love Easter eggs! Egg dying and decorating, whether from a kit, with food dye, or as the beautiful, colourful, symbolic pysanka of Ukraine, coloured eggs are a tradition families love. Just visit Vegreville, Alberta, and see the gigantic Pysanka, which honours early Ukrainian settlers. For Ukrainians, dyed eggs were a pre-Christian symbol that later became a Christian tradition. Easter egg hunts, egg rolling, egg and spoon races, and other traditions persist beyond the chocolate egg commercialism. Whether hen’s eggs or chocolate eggs, Easter eggs stand for new life.
We love to eat eggs and why not? They are so good for us. Whole eggs supply most of the nutrients we need. As a weight-management group, we at TOPS look at foods to support our goals. Are eggs good for weight loss? The answer is that eggs are a low-calorie food rich in protein and other nutrients that may support weight loss, especially if we incorporate them into a calorie-controlled diet, avoiding too much butter or oil in preparation. In fact, eating an egg-based breakfast might stop us from grabbing that croissant at coffee break.
What about egg yolks? If a person has a risk of cardiovascular disease, they should probably eat only the whites. Otherwise, eat the whole egg, because while the white supplies more protein, the yolk has most of the fat- and water-soluble vitamins and minerals in eggs. In fact, the yolk provides 2.70 g of protein, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and zinc, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, and Vitamins B-6, B-12, A, E, D-2, D-3, and K, (almost like a Multi-vitamin and -mineral tablet?)
There are so many fun facts to learn about the eggs we choose. Free run eggs come from uncaged hens. Free-range eggs come from uncaged hens that also go outside in good weather. Eggs from hens that get sunshine have 3 or 4 times the amount of vitamin D. Hens fed a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin-D-enriched feed produce eggs containing much higher levels of these nutrients.
Are brown eggs more nutritious than white eggs? Egg color depends on the breed of the chicken. White Leghorn chickens will lay white-shelled eggs, while Plymouth Rocks will lay brown-shelled eggs. Cream Legbar hens lay blue eggs. But all eggs are very similar nutritionally, regardless of their colour.
Join us at TOPS, where you’ll meet a group of friendly people, though we won’t be dyeing eggs together. We’d love to see you at our meetings, to share some of our weight-related strategies with you. We meet each Wednesday at the Community Centre, from 9:00 am to 10:00 am. We follow all the Covid protocols. We’re a low-cost, international self-help program that welcomes everyone. Your first visit is free. If you want to Take Off Pounds Sensibly with us, please call .
Submitted by Amber Harvey
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